14 DAY TRIAL // Rihanna has a new video out so this must mean it's time for a little controversy again: this time, the singer is being slammed for “glorifying” physical violence and drug abuse in the video for “We Found Love.”
As we also informed you at the time of the release, the video sees Rihanna in an abusive relationship, from which she eventually breaks free right at the end, when she simply decides to get up and leave.
However, before that, viewers are shown images of the dysfunctional romance, which includes drug use, suggestions of abuse and a few instances of very inappropriate behavior.
The Rape Crisis Center believes Rihanna may have pushed the envelope too far with the imagery for the new video, blasting her in a statement cited by AceShowbiz.
It's like the singer is telling her female fans that they can only exist if owned by a man.
“It sends the message that she is an object to be possessed by men, which is disturbingly what we see in real violence cases,” the group says.
While the popstar is yet to address the latest controversy (assuming she has any intention of doing so), Melina Matsoukas, who directed the clip, points out that one shouldn't mistake art for glorification.
“We love, obviously, to do provocative imagery. I think because, in the end, it's not really at all about domestic violence,” she says, as cited by the aforementioned publication.
“It's really just about it being toxic, and they're on this drug trip and that definitely plays a part, but I think it's also about being triumphant over those weaknesses, and she leaves him,” Matsoukas says.
“It's not trying to glorify that type of relationship. The bad parts of it, that's what you don't want. In the end, her leaving, it represents her getting that out of her life,” she adds.
As it happens, this isn't the only trouble that Rihanna got herself in with “We Found Love”: as we also reported, there's also a lot of talk online about how she stole the concept for the video from Cee-Lo Green, who actually used it for his single “No One's Gonna Love You.”
Below is Rihanna's “We Found Love”: you be the judge if it can be said to glorify abuse.
